Alabama ranks high in magazine’s 2018 business climate survey

Employees celebrate the opening this year of a Walmart distribution center in Mobile. Site Selection magazine has ranked Alabama's business climate in the top 10 nationally for the past three years. [Photo via ANC contribution]

National publication Site Selection again rated Alabama among the top states in its annual State Business Climate survey, reflecting its consistent attractiveness for high-value economic development projects.

Overall, Site Selection ranked Alabama No. 8 in its Business Climate analysis, tied with Indiana. In a survey that is a major component of the Site Selection analysis, consultants and corporate real estate executives placed Alabama No. 7 among the states.

Alabama scored in the Top 10 in both categories in the 2016 and 2017 Site Selection surveys.

“The primary strategic objective of Alabama’s economic development team is to facilitate the creation of high-caliber jobs that benefit the state’s citizens and its communities,” said Greg Canfield, secretary of the Alabama Department of Commerce.

“This high ranking, along with others the state has received recently, underscores that our team is consistently executing our strategy and achieving positive results for Alabama.”

Between 2011 and 2017, economic development activity generated $33 billion in new capital investment to Alabama, along with 125,000 anticipated jobs, according to data from the Alabama Department of Commerce.

In 2017, new capital investment tied to projects exceeded $4 billion, along with 15,000 jobs, the data show.

This year, Alabama has attracted a series of major projects in key industrial sectors, led by Mazda Toyota Manufacturing USA’s $1.6 billion auto assembly plant that will create 4,000 jobs in Huntsville.

Recognizing results

The high ranking in Site Selection’s 2018 Business Climate survey represents the latest recognition earned by Alabama and its economic development team. Others recent examples include:

Business Facilities, another economic development-focused publication, ranked Alabama’s business climate tops among the states in an analysis that examined performance in several key economic categories. Besides the No. 1 ranking for Best Business Climate, Business Facilities gave the state high marks for growth potential and workforce training.

Alabama Today will be the first place Alabamians of influence go for an inside look at breaking statewide, political and business news. Led by Apryl Marie Fogel, a political activist with over a decade of experience, the Alabama Today team includes freelance news reporters, as well as guest columnists from around the state.